Albums: DJ Spooky [That Subliminal Kid] - Riddim Warfare/ Sloan - Action Pact/ Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet - Sport Fishin' [The Lure of the Bait, The Luck of the Hook]
Source (purchased/given/borrowed/the wife's): purchased
Dates Acquired: 1998/ 2003/ 1994(?)
Original Reviews: Action Pact: "Action Pact is an album with forward momentum, each carried along with the strength of the strings, alternating between Jay Freguson and Patrick Pentland's guitar in the driver's seat. It's twelve songs over almost as quickly as they start, and put together more tightly and consistently than any of the six previous efforts. Though this would be considered a plus with most artists, with this band it's almost a detriment, considering how typically varied and diversified the song each member crafts usually are."
Thoughts/Memories/ Remembrances:
Riddim Warfare - I'm not sure where or when my love affair with DJ Spooky [That Subliminal Kid] began, but I know it ended not long after I purchased this album, relatively fresh off the press (judging by its release date I can assuredly say I bought it at St. James' Stereo, which was the only decent place to buy indie/alt music in Thunder Bay during the '90's (sadly, no longer) and either I came across Spooky on a compilation or on CBC's Brave New Waves (where most things I bought in the '90's I became aware of). Anyway, this album I liked, I think, but after a few listens and an extracted track for compilation listening, I put it on the shelf where stayed, until it was occasionally dusted off to be moved to a new household. I still bought DJ Spooky albums in the years that followed, with depreciating returns, liking each subsequent less and less. To be honest, I just don't think I understood them.
Action Pact - Oh, Sloan, after two albums I didn't like much at all (I didn't even buy that sixth album) here was one full of relatively short, catchy 80's inspired pop melodies. I did come to respect Sloan again, but for my immediate pleasure with this album, it's lasting power in my CD player was not long at all. Though I don't have any sentimental attachments to this album, I do have quite the soft spot for the band.
Sport Fishin' - It was at some point during my grade 12 year in 1993/94, during art class sitting next to this dude (who would later become one of my longest and bestest friends) that I learned that the opening and incidental music that was played on Kids In The Hall (still the second best sketch comedy show ever) wasn't just ambiance, but actual music, played by an actual band. That's when I learned about Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet, and life really hasn't been the same since. As soon as I found out about them I had. to. own. music. And I did, finding their latest release (this very CD) at the record shoppe and going all agog over it. GAK and I both, with a long love of art, comedy, music and irreverence formed a long bonding (not bondage) friendship that somewhere at the heart of it is always playing a vocals-free sweet bass/guitar/drums (and sometimes keyboards) riff. (Though defunct for over a decade [RIP Reid Diamond], GAK still manages to unearth new Shadowy Men tracks we've both never heard from time to time, the latest can be heard on this week's Radio Free GAK).
Source (purchased/given/borrowed/the wife's): purchased
Dates Acquired: 1998/ 2003/ 1994(?)
Original Reviews: Action Pact: "Action Pact is an album with forward momentum, each carried along with the strength of the strings, alternating between Jay Freguson and Patrick Pentland's guitar in the driver's seat. It's twelve songs over almost as quickly as they start, and put together more tightly and consistently than any of the six previous efforts. Though this would be considered a plus with most artists, with this band it's almost a detriment, considering how typically varied and diversified the song each member crafts usually are."
Thoughts/Memories/ Remembrances:
Riddim Warfare - I'm not sure where or when my love affair with DJ Spooky [That Subliminal Kid] began, but I know it ended not long after I purchased this album, relatively fresh off the press (judging by its release date I can assuredly say I bought it at St. James' Stereo, which was the only decent place to buy indie/alt music in Thunder Bay during the '90's (sadly, no longer) and either I came across Spooky on a compilation or on CBC's Brave New Waves (where most things I bought in the '90's I became aware of). Anyway, this album I liked, I think, but after a few listens and an extracted track for compilation listening, I put it on the shelf where stayed, until it was occasionally dusted off to be moved to a new household. I still bought DJ Spooky albums in the years that followed, with depreciating returns, liking each subsequent less and less. To be honest, I just don't think I understood them.
Action Pact - Oh, Sloan, after two albums I didn't like much at all (I didn't even buy that sixth album) here was one full of relatively short, catchy 80's inspired pop melodies. I did come to respect Sloan again, but for my immediate pleasure with this album, it's lasting power in my CD player was not long at all. Though I don't have any sentimental attachments to this album, I do have quite the soft spot for the band.
Sport Fishin' - It was at some point during my grade 12 year in 1993/94, during art class sitting next to this dude (who would later become one of my longest and bestest friends) that I learned that the opening and incidental music that was played on Kids In The Hall (still the second best sketch comedy show ever) wasn't just ambiance, but actual music, played by an actual band. That's when I learned about Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet, and life really hasn't been the same since. As soon as I found out about them I had. to. own. music. And I did, finding their latest release (this very CD) at the record shoppe and going all agog over it. GAK and I both, with a long love of art, comedy, music and irreverence formed a long bonding (not bondage) friendship that somewhere at the heart of it is always playing a vocals-free sweet bass/guitar/drums (and sometimes keyboards) riff. (Though defunct for over a decade [RIP Reid Diamond], GAK still manages to unearth new Shadowy Men tracks we've both never heard from time to time, the latest can be heard on this week's Radio Free GAK).
Re-Review:
Riddim Warfare Wow, a decade old and this album still sounds fresh. Diverging between breakbeats, dub, ambient, found-sounds, hiphop, downtemp jazz, electronica and more, DJ Spooky puts this thing all over the map, and yet somehow retains a consistent theme and/or sensibility throughout. I've listened to this over a dozen times in the past week and with each passing listen I like it more and more. I was ready to give this one the ol' sell-off heave, but now I think I like it more than I ever did. In the past, I think I didn't like this because it only has two standout tracks (to my ears anyway), being the swirling-come-thumping "Post-Human Sophistry" and the dub-tastic "Polyphony Of One". But now, I realize that the other tracks, though most maybe not capable of standing on their own, have a part to play in making this an engaging listen as an album. Kool Kieth and Organized Confusion, amongst others, provide some rhyme flow on a scattering of tracks, and it's interesting to note the highly juxtaposed rapping styles. DJ Spooky's diversity is what I originally liked about him, but it's also what dropped him out of my favour, the fact that I couldn't rely on him to produce as specific type of album. There are releases in his repertoire that don't engage me at all, but this is not one of them.
Action Pact - The opening five tracks provide for about 15 minutes of brilliant 80's -style radio rock, which, in 2003, was not yet in revival stage. "Gimme That" rocks out with pulsating guitars, perfect harmony, and a phantom cowbell (I can never tell if it's there or I'm just imagining it). "Live On" kicks off right as "Gimme That" ends and feels like a shifted switch up of the same track (with more cowbell). "Backstabbin'" is a riotous hair-band rawk song that just calls for lipstick and sneering. If there's no other track on this album that so wonderfully straddles the line between brilliantly satirizing the '80's sound and embracing it too closely. There is indeed a forward momentum until track six, when the band hits the brick wall that is "Nothing Lasts Forever Anymore" which falls into the bad 80's ballad pool with a big ol' Gowan-style belly flop. It's a stunner, perhaps the worst song Sloan has ever committed to CD, and the album just doesn't recover. With the exception of "I Was Wrong" (track 9), and even then, the remainder of the album is a snooze, the whole 80's shtick just not able to survive even a barely-40-minute run time. A collection of these tracks can make a decent EP, but overall, nothing here is essential to the Sloan oeuvre. Their latest album, Never Hear The End Of It seriously puts this one to shame.
Sport Fishin' - There have been great guitar players who can make their six-strings sing, there are drummers who can hit the skins and hi-hats like a rhythmic demon possessed, and there's some wicked bassists out there... well maybe. But there's never been a band before, or since the Shadowy Men who can come together so seemingly effortlessly to make an absolute dearth of tracks that somehow sound nothing alike, that embody their whimsical (often hilarious) titles ("Honey, You're Wasting Ammo", "We're Not A Fucking Surf Band", "Off Our Back Conrad Black") and occasionally evoke lyrics out of its listener without actually having any. Brian Connelly, Reid Diamond and Don Pyle made some sweet, exciting, hilarious and always damn entertaining music together. Somehow "Fortune Telling Chicken" sounds like chicken music, and "Memories of Gay Paree" evokes thoughts of Paris, even though it's in no way stereotypically Parisian sounding, nor have I ever been to Paris. Their creative use of spoken word lead ins or audio excerpts are just part of the Shadowy Men's playfulness... but their music stands on shoulders with They Might Be Giants and Jonathan Richman and other time-tested artists whose sometimes campy, sometimes kitschy, but typically ingenious work never fails to disappoint. Even though Connelly has started another acoustic band, Atomic 7, which is pretty great with it's surf/rockabilly infusion, it still pales in the shadow of the Shadowy Men.
Rating (sell/keep/undecided):
Riddim Warfare - keep
Action Pact - sell
Sport Fishin - keep
DJ Spooky - "peace in Zaire"
Sloan - "The Rest Of My Life"
Download Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet's video for "They Don't Call Them Chihuahuas Anymore (real media)... (it's really sad that I can't find this or "Memories of Gay Paree" on YouTube or anywhere else on the interwebs)
Riddim Warfare Wow, a decade old and this album still sounds fresh. Diverging between breakbeats, dub, ambient, found-sounds, hiphop, downtemp jazz, electronica and more, DJ Spooky puts this thing all over the map, and yet somehow retains a consistent theme and/or sensibility throughout. I've listened to this over a dozen times in the past week and with each passing listen I like it more and more. I was ready to give this one the ol' sell-off heave, but now I think I like it more than I ever did. In the past, I think I didn't like this because it only has two standout tracks (to my ears anyway), being the swirling-come-thumping "Post-Human Sophistry" and the dub-tastic "Polyphony Of One". But now, I realize that the other tracks, though most maybe not capable of standing on their own, have a part to play in making this an engaging listen as an album. Kool Kieth and Organized Confusion, amongst others, provide some rhyme flow on a scattering of tracks, and it's interesting to note the highly juxtaposed rapping styles. DJ Spooky's diversity is what I originally liked about him, but it's also what dropped him out of my favour, the fact that I couldn't rely on him to produce as specific type of album. There are releases in his repertoire that don't engage me at all, but this is not one of them.
Action Pact - The opening five tracks provide for about 15 minutes of brilliant 80's -style radio rock, which, in 2003, was not yet in revival stage. "Gimme That" rocks out with pulsating guitars, perfect harmony, and a phantom cowbell (I can never tell if it's there or I'm just imagining it). "Live On" kicks off right as "Gimme That" ends and feels like a shifted switch up of the same track (with more cowbell). "Backstabbin'" is a riotous hair-band rawk song that just calls for lipstick and sneering. If there's no other track on this album that so wonderfully straddles the line between brilliantly satirizing the '80's sound and embracing it too closely. There is indeed a forward momentum until track six, when the band hits the brick wall that is "Nothing Lasts Forever Anymore" which falls into the bad 80's ballad pool with a big ol' Gowan-style belly flop. It's a stunner, perhaps the worst song Sloan has ever committed to CD, and the album just doesn't recover. With the exception of "I Was Wrong" (track 9), and even then, the remainder of the album is a snooze, the whole 80's shtick just not able to survive even a barely-40-minute run time. A collection of these tracks can make a decent EP, but overall, nothing here is essential to the Sloan oeuvre. Their latest album, Never Hear The End Of It seriously puts this one to shame.
Sport Fishin' - There have been great guitar players who can make their six-strings sing, there are drummers who can hit the skins and hi-hats like a rhythmic demon possessed, and there's some wicked bassists out there... well maybe. But there's never been a band before, or since the Shadowy Men who can come together so seemingly effortlessly to make an absolute dearth of tracks that somehow sound nothing alike, that embody their whimsical (often hilarious) titles ("Honey, You're Wasting Ammo", "We're Not A Fucking Surf Band", "Off Our Back Conrad Black") and occasionally evoke lyrics out of its listener without actually having any. Brian Connelly, Reid Diamond and Don Pyle made some sweet, exciting, hilarious and always damn entertaining music together. Somehow "Fortune Telling Chicken" sounds like chicken music, and "Memories of Gay Paree" evokes thoughts of Paris, even though it's in no way stereotypically Parisian sounding, nor have I ever been to Paris. Their creative use of spoken word lead ins or audio excerpts are just part of the Shadowy Men's playfulness... but their music stands on shoulders with They Might Be Giants and Jonathan Richman and other time-tested artists whose sometimes campy, sometimes kitschy, but typically ingenious work never fails to disappoint. Even though Connelly has started another acoustic band, Atomic 7, which is pretty great with it's surf/rockabilly infusion, it still pales in the shadow of the Shadowy Men.
Rating (sell/keep/undecided):
Riddim Warfare - keep
Action Pact - sell
Sport Fishin - keep
DJ Spooky - "peace in Zaire"
Sloan - "The Rest Of My Life"
Download Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet's video for "They Don't Call Them Chihuahuas Anymore (real media)... (it's really sad that I can't find this or "Memories of Gay Paree" on YouTube or anywhere else on the interwebs)